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c016

Abandoned Minors

The St. Charles City-County Library District’s Board of Trustees state that the fundamental responsibility for a minor’s physical well being remains with the parents of the minor. This policy is enacted because of numerous incidents involving minors left at library facilities after closing. For purposes of this policy, minors shall be defined as library patrons under the age of sixteen.

The District can assume no responsibility for minor patrons on library property, who are not physically within a library building at the time of closing.

If minors are in a building at the time of closing and have no means of transportation, the library staff will obtain their names and addresses, their phone numbers, and the names of their parents. Their parents will be called and told to pick up the minor, and a follow-up letter to the parents will be sent explaining closing hours, library responsibility for the minor’s safety, and other specifics delineated in this policy.

If the parents have not arrived to pick up their children within fifteen minutes after closing time, the police department of the municipality where the branch is located will be contacted.

The Library District will keep a permanent record of parents who have been contacted. Billing for staff time and overhead shall be made to the parents upon the second incidence from a household.